Political parties mining Arizona voters' personal data

Arizonans filling out voter-registration forms this election season will hand over personal information that, under state law, will be distributed to political parties and ultimately sold to candidates' campaigns.

Unknown to most would-be voters: They have the option of not providing many of the requested details, including the last four digits of the voter's Social Security number, the father's name or mother's maiden name, e-mail address and occupation.

Even marking a party preference is optional, Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne said. People who select independent or leave the space empty will be categorized as "party not designated."

Though they can't require the additional information, election officials benefit from having more detail on voters because it makes it easier to verify voters' identities.

Political parties, meanwhile, want the information to help their candidates target voters and win at the ballot box.

As indicated on the registration form, voter-registration requirements in Arizona are basic: Voters must have U.S. citizenship, be a resident of Arizona and the county on the form, and be 18 or older "on or before the day of the next regular General Election."

That means county election departments need only the registrant's name, birth date, address, proof of citizenship and signature, Osborne said.

The Maricopa County Elections Department finds it more helpful for voters to fill out the entire registration form so that election officials can accurately distinguish among the 2.1 million voters in the database, said Jasper Altaha, county voter-registration manager.

"We try to let everybody know that we want them -- if they can -- to complete the whole form," Altaha said.

Election officials must ensure that voter information is not duplicated, a tricky task when it involves twins and others with similar names and personal information, he said.

The information maintained by the county is protected from commercial use. Voters can view their own information.

Law enforcement can also access it. Certain voters' information -- law-enforcement officers, code-enforcement officers, judges and domestic-violence victims who have a court order -- is sealed.

"This (database) is not for process servers. It is not for businesses to get a way to sell magazines. It's the only semi-closed piece of information that government has," Osborne said.

Yet Arizona statutes require that county recorders hand over certain voter information to recognized state and county political party chairmen: full name and title, party preference, date of registration, residence or mailing address, ZIP code, voting history for the past four years, and, if given, phone number, birth year and occupation.

The statute also requires counties to give "any other" public information about the voter that is electronically maintained by the county, city or town clerk, as well as "all data" relating to permanent and non-permanent early voters, including their ballot requests and ballot returns.

The Arizona Secretary of State's Office maintains the same voter information but does not disseminate it.

In the hands of savvy political operatives, such information can be useful.

Political parties often enhance the data they receive and create mailing, phone or walking lists.

Candidates and political campaigns purchase the data from the parties and sign an agreement that prohibits them from using the information for commercial ends. Information supplied by the parties tends to be more detailed and costs less than the raw data that can be purchased for election purposes from county recorders for a penny per voter name.

The Arizona Republican Party has three official databases. Once the party receives voter information from counties, it sends the data to the Republican National Committee. The RNC then feeds it into a database of every jurisdiction in the country called Voter Vault. The Arizona party has access to that database and can add other information mainly from surveys, said Shane Wikfors, an Arizona Republican Party spokesman.

Candidates, precinct committeemen, county party chairmen and legislative district chairmen can create lists for calling or visiting voters based on the information.

Using a system called First Tuesday in November, or FTIN, party officials collecting petition signatures or doing polling can add issues and candidate affiliations using laptops or smart devices to create a more complete profile of a voter. People with access to the database can see the information in real time as it is entered.

Using Voter Vault and another system, Victory 2012, which manipulates demographic data from counties, the party is able to identify certain characteristics about every voter, said Teresa Martinez, southern Arizona director of the Arizona Republican Party who oversees the system. For example, they can track sisters living in the same house and distinguish between them by age and political affiliation.

Candidates access information on the candidates whom voters supported in the past and use that to tailor campaign materials to those voters.

Precinct committeemen sign a disclaimer saying they will not use the data for personal reasons and only for election or party purposes, said Anthony Miller, Republican precinct committeeman and former district chairman in Legislative District 20.

The Arizona Democratic Party also works with the Democratic National Committee to create a database through the Voter Activation Network, or VAN, a contracted company. The party uses social, demographic and consumer data to enhance the voter-registration information provided by the counties, said Luis Heredia, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party.

The party uses a combination of information, including magazine subscriptions, to enhance its database, Heredia said. The party uses the information to make its best guess at a voter's race, income and other demographic characteristics based on that information, he said.

The party also maintains voter histories going back several election cycles, a key indicator of voter turnout. If a voter lives in an affluent area or a precinct with high turnout, that also could affect turnout probability, he said.

"As more and more information is uploaded, we get a better picture of our electorate," Heredia said.

Not all political parties are eager to compile additional information on voters. The Arizona Libertarian Party does not maintain a database beyond that provided by the counties, said Barry Hess, spokesman for the party. And the party does not enhance the county's raw data with surveys or polls, he said.

"There's not a lot of enthusiasm ... to even worry about those lists. We simply use them to pull out the Libertarians and communicate with them," Hess said. "We're all about the privacy of the individual."